University of Virginia Library

XIV. Public Day

The first elaborate commencement apparently took
place in July, 1829. During these early years, it was
spoken of generally as the Public Day, but we discover an

incidental reference to it as the Exhibition. In October,
1828, the Faculty were authorized by the Board to require
the students to read to the audience on the next
Public Day the written answers which they had submitted
in their final examinations; and the occasion was to be
further illuminated by the delivery of orations and the
reading of essays. The programme for that commencement
(1829) was arranged at least two months and a
half before the close of the session, and under its provisions,
the students were to assemble on the last day
of the term "in the Rotunda,"—which, doubtless, meant
the library-room,—and the public were also to be admitted.
Each professor, at the call of the chairman, was
to announce the result in his own school; and he was also
to read aloud the questions which had been propounded
to his pupils, one or more of whom were to be named by
the chairman to read such replies as had been selected
beforehand by the committee of that school. If necessary,
a blackboard was to be used in their exposition.
Speakers and essayists,—also chosen by the chairman,—
were then to enliven the audience; and this was to be followed
by the delivery of certificates and diplomas. If
the winner of a diploma failed to be present to receive it,
the Faculty subsequently decided whether or not they
should confer it at all.

In June, four young men were appointed to deliver the
orations and one to read an essay. The Faculty very
considerately decided to omit the examination papers
from the programme, because they would either consume
too much of the limited time, or would add too sensibly
to the solemnity of the occasion. The following was the
order of proceedings adopted for what was apparently
the first real commencement in the history of the University,
and for that reason, it is of sufficient interest to

be repeated in detail: (1) oration by George P. Beirne,
of Monroe county, Va.; (2) list of the students who displayed,
in the final examinations, the highest proficiency
in their studies; (3) oration by W. F. Gray; (4) essay by
John H. Gretter; (5) announcement by the chairman of
the names of the graduates, and the delivery to them of
their diplomas; (6) oration by William Daniel, of
Lynchburg; (7) oration by Charles Mosby, of Powhatan
county.

In July, 1832, the proceedings began and ended with
an oration. There were only two delivered instead of
four, as in 1829, but there was an additional essay to take
the place of one of the two orations omitted. The
students had always disputed the Faculty's right to appoint
the orators and essayists, and in March, they had
elected,—apparently, however, with the Faculty's approval,
—the entire number to serve in the following
July. This they again did in 1833; but in 1834, at least
one of the orators, and also one of the essayists, was
chosen by the Faculty. This change aroused a storm of
disapproval among the students, and they openly declared
that none of their number should, with their consent,
accept from the Faculty an appointment as orator or
essayist; that should any one do so, they would decline
to be present to hear him speak or read; and that when
they assembled, it should be, not in the proctor's office,
as ordered, but wherever they should prefer to convene.
It is plain that the result of the students' election was as
little satisfactory to the Board of Visitors as to the Faculty,
and, in 1835, they introduced a different method of
selection. In each November, the entire number of
young men were to be set off in nine divisions. Each
division was to name an elector; and the nine electors thus
chosen were to hold a meeting, at which they were to

nominate six orators and essayists. It was confidently
expected that these nine representatives would, like the
members of the Federal electoral college, exercise a wise
discretion in making their choice. But the students were
determined that they would not allow this shrewd device
to deprive them of what they looked upon as their right:
we find them assembling in April, 1837, and solemnly receiving
the pledge of the electors that they would vote
only for the candidates whom the entire body of the
collegians desired, and whose names were then submitted
for acceptance. The chairman complained that the
young men were so much interested in canvassing the
claims of the prospective orators and essayists that their
attention was diverted from their studies, and their dislike
of disciplinary restraints sensibly heightened. It
was noted too by him, with dissatisfaction, that these
candidates sought to increase their chance of election by
criticizing the Faculty.

The Visitors, in the end, revoked the resolution creating
the board of electors, as that method had failed to
repress the violence of partizanship, or do away with the
confusion that accompanied the canvassing. In 1840,
the two orators selected among the students for the Public
Day were picked out under a new plan: at the beginning
of the session, all the young men were invited to
prepare written discourses to be submitted to the chairman
by the first of May. The two among them which
were determined to be the most meritorious were set
aside to be delivered at commencement.